Statue of Ivan Konev, War memorial in Prague 6, Czech Republic.
The Statue of Ivan Konev is a granite monument with a bronze, over-life-size figure of the Soviet marshal holding a bouquet of lilacs, sculpted by Zdeněk Krybus with architectural design by Vratislav Růžička. It stood from 1980 to 2020 on Náměstí Interbrigády in Prague 6-Bubeneč, near Jugoslávských partyzánů street.
The monument was erected in 1980 to honor a Soviet marshal who participated in the liberation of Prague from occupation in 1945. Its removal in 2020 reflected changing assessments of these historical events.
The lilac bouquet in the statue's hand refers to the flowers with which Praguers reportedly greeted Soviet tanks arriving from the north on 9 May 1945. From the 1990s the monument drew protests and was repeatedly painted with slogans or doused in red paint, especially around the anniversary of the 1968 invasion.
The statue was removed from its original location in 2020 and is currently stored in a depository facility. Anyone interested in learning more about this part of the city's history should check for information about potential future museum display.
In 2018 the city added new information panels in Czech, Russian and English, unveiled on 21 August at 14:35, the anniversary of the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. They noted Konev's role in crushing the 1956 Hungarian uprising and in the 1961 Berlin Wall crisis. The Russian, Belarusian, Armenian, Azerbaijani and Kazakh embassies protested in a letter.
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